Many times a new hotel or resort, especially an independent one, takes some time to get it’s bearings. If you stay there in the first year or two of operation, you may have to overlook a few problems you can chalk up to newness.

That is not the case with the Puerto Vallarta region’s Garza Blanca Preserve Resort, just south of the city near the Los Arcos rock formations. Led by a skilled manager who used to be at Las Alamandas in Costalegre, this is a finely tuned operation with great staffers and two terrific restaurants. These support large and well-equipped rooms, many of them suites or sprawling multi-bedroom penthouse-type condos with wraparound terraces. Every room has a balcony of some kind with a direct ocean view.

I’ve already raved enough about it in our review to repeat it all here, so go check out the photos and see our full review of Garza Blanca Resort.

As we say in the About Luxury Latin America page, this site is “is for readers looking to get filtered, authoritative recommendations on where amenities and service go well beyond the norm.” So we check out a lot of hotels that are quite good, but not good enough to be included here.

Hotel Secreto on Isla Mujeres near Cancun is one example. This was the first stylish hotel to open on the island, so it got a flurry of press and accolades when it launched in the middle of the past decade. It’s still got 12 big rooms, comfy beds, and the feel of an intimate villa. But one of our regular correspondents, who is also a guidebook writer for the region, says it feels like “more of an upper-midrange place than a luxury boutique hotel.” A lot of services high-end travelers expect (like 24-hour room service) aren’t available and the property is not looking so fresh and new anymore. It’s a nice hotel overall and some investment in refurbishment and a larger staff might bring it to the next level, but for now picky upscale travelers are better off at Villa Rolandi.

Three of our correspondents have checked out Le Rêve in the Riviera Maya, including me, and it too falls into that “close, but no cigar” category. I would gladly spend a long, leisurely weekend with the one I love at this small and romantic beachfront hotel north of Playa del Carmen (pictured at the top), and I’m sure I’d enjoy it—if I didn’t have to pay the sky-high listed room rates, anyway. But it just doesn’t have the level of pampering guest rooms and attentive service you’ll find at the other luxury Riviera Maya hotels we have included. (I wandered around for five minutes before finding someone who worked there when I visited.) The suites facing the beach, with their own plunge pool, are heavenly. Some of the other rooms, though, are pretty minimalist.

It is possible for a small hotel to compete favorably with the big luxury beach resorts—Casa de Mita on the west coast of Mexico is a great example—but it means being dramatically better than everything else around that’s the same size, not just more expensive.

If you are researching luxury resorts in Latin America and don’t find the one you’re interested in listed on our site, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with it. But we only include reviews of the “best of the best” in the region, so sometimes we have to pass.

After spending a week in the Puerto Vallarta region in rainy season, after visiting it before in the dry season, the most astounding thing to me was how much the water changes from beach to beach depending on the month. This time of year, it’s raining every day or two for at least an hour, so the silty rivers are bloated and running down the Sierra Madres. Where most of them empty out—in the middle of the bay—this has a major impact on the beaches and the water itself.

I stayed first in the Nuevo Vallarta area, where crews were busy removing limbs and tree trunks that had washed ashore and the water (pictured here) was closer to brown than blue. It’s still a great beach, and not as chocolate brown as in Puerto Vallarta’s center, but certainly not postcard blue.

The next shot is from the beach in front of the Four Seasons Punta Mita and this far up the bay it’s a very different story. The beaches are powdery white, the sea is clear blue, and visibility is good enough to go snorkeling.

That’s kind of expected, but here’s the odd thing: if you go a bit south from Puerto Vallarta to where Garza Blanca Resort is (review coming soon), close to Mismaloya, the water gets clear blue again and the beach is white. See the photo below. There are still a few streams emptying out here, but the water is coming through the jungle (clear) and apparently the currents move toward the middle of the bay and Nuevo Vallarta. So if crystal clear water and a white beach are important to you and it’s the rainy off-season, head to the end of the bay up north or head south.

Many luxury travelers recoil at the thought of staying at an all-inclusive hotel, thinking of it as a vacation factory with routine buffet food, indifferent service, and ho-hum rooms. There is such a thing as a luxury all-inclusive, however, and in Mexico the best examples are three notable Velas properties: two in the Puerto Vallarta region and one in the Riviera Maya region.

I had the pleasure of revisiting Grand Velas Nuevo Vallarta last week and was just as impressed as I was a few years ago. If anything, the operation has improved, despite the challenging tourism environment the past year and a half in Mexico. The staff is polished and bilingual and the rooms are some of the most impressive of any resort in the region. At all the upscale Velas resorts the food is a big draw. I wasn’t able to eat at Frida, Piaf, or Lucca—all AAA 4-diamond a la carte dinner restaurants—but in this resort even what I sampled at the lunch buffet was amazing, especially the fresh seafood, ceviche, and quality wine from Chile. And no need to rush down to snag a poolside lounge chair in the morning: just reserve what you need through the pool concierge. When you arrive he’ll get your reserved chairs ready, bring water or whatever else you need, and even furnish a loaded loaner iPod if you want.

Casa Velas, situated next to a golf course (but with its own private beach club), is a more intimate affair. With only 80 rooms and no buffet meals at the restaurants, this feels like one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World that it is, but everything is wrapped up in one price, including excellent meals, bottles of wine, and top-shelf liquor. The Presidential Suite pictured here may be the best bargain in the whole region: $1,200 for two plus $300 for each additional guest. It sleeps up to eight in its four spacious bedrooms with private bath and there’s a huge terrace with a plunge pool. The rate includes not only meals and drinks, but a stocked bar, a round of golf, a private dinner, and a spa treatment.

Meanwhile, for the other coast, I snagged this dessert photo from this OMG! Yummy blog post on a stay at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya. I can confirm from experience that the food is spectacular there—easily on par with any a la carte restaurants in the region.

With tourism in Mexico still way off from the level it was before the cable news networks started acting like the whole country is one big Ciudad Juarez, the Grand Velas hotels are frequently running deals that make them an undeniable value. All all-inclusives are not created equal and these are a in a different league altogether.

See more luxury hotels in Puerto Vallarta and Punta Mita.

For your lunch time salivating pleasure, here’s a three-course lunch presented from the poolside restaurant with a view at Four Seasons Punta Mita in Mexico. This is the Ketsi restaurant, overseen by Richard Sandoval. (I probably don’t have to tell you that it was all delicious.)

First course: smoked swordfish tostadas

Grilled red Snapper with chili morita Sauce, mango salsa, sweet corn tamal

Dessert: a heavenly Mexican chocolate tart

See more about the beachfront seafood grill (Bahia) and Aramara Asian restaurants at the Four Seasons Punta Mita dining page.